Barkingside’s local Agenda 21 community and environment group – campaigning for a sustainable future.

Tuesday, August 08, 2017

Going to the Tip

We all need to get rid of stuff from time to time. And some of us a bit more often now we have a new “improved” kerbside green waste collection service with bio-degradable bags that are totally unsuitable for anything you can’t compost at home. So here are a few tips on going to the tip.
The first thing you need to know is that Redbridge is part of the East London Waste Authority (ELWA) and there are four Tips, otherwise known as Recycling and Reclamation Centres (RRCs), we are allowed to use. There is one in each of the four boroughs, Redbridge, Havering, Barking & Dagenham and Newham. So if you live in the south or the east of the borough you may find one of those tips is closer to hand.

The second and important thing is that you will need some sort of Identification to prove you are a bona fide Redbridge resident – a driving licence or utility bill will suffice.

Now, there are reports that the Tip in Chigwell Road is “rammed every day of the week” but this is not entirely true. What does happen, from time to time, is that the big containers get full up and have to be moved, so they close the gates for 20 minutes or so while they have heavy machinery moving about. The result is a queue and a wait.

Photo credit; Cllr Emma Best

This can’t be helped, it happens at all tips – I was stuck outside the Croyden tip last month for 30 minutes with my uncle George.

Experience suggests that while the Chigwell Road tip is being used more since April it is not causing too much of a problem. Most of the time cars can be in and out in a few minutes, if not seconds. However there are busy times that you may wish to avoid and ELWA have helpfully produced a graph for each tip, which is updated on a daily basis.

They also publish a map so you know where to go and a site layout so you know where to park up when you get there.